Lucy Allan MP

In a customer facing role employers will expect employees to dress professionally. It seems we all have a different view of what is professional. In some sectors, alongside smart suits, employers consider make up and heels an important part of a professional look. Of course employees should dress smartly if the job requires them to present a professional image. But if a boss would not ask a man to be clean shaven, I think there are issues around asking a woman to wear high heels. Flat shoes can be smart and professional too.

Some shoes are inappropriate for an office environment and its quite right for employers to be able to say no trainers, no flip flops, no slippers. In some workplaces high heels are not appropriate and hard boots are required.

Many people have written to me asking whether I will ‘back Brexit’ in light of the Supreme Court Ruling. I supported ‘Leave’ in the EU Referendum and I believe the outcome of that vote marked a new and bright future for Britain. I will continue to support Brexit. The Prime Minister has handled this issue well and we need to get started on the process for the benefit of jobs and business.

There is a further issue, one more important than my own personal opinion. My constituents voted strongly in favour of leaving the EU. I knew what local sentiment was on this issue well before I became an MP. One of the reasons I wanted to represent Telford was that I shared local views and opinions.

Members of Parliament will not vote against Brexit. The people have spoken. We were given a yes/no referendum and the outcome, although tight, was clear. MPs cannot in good conscience now seek to use Parliament to frustrate the will of the people – that way revolution lies. I respect the outcome of the referendum and the majority of MPs will do so too.

“Residents are debating whether there should be an independent review into the high levels of CSE in Telford. What do you think?

This is what Pete thinks:

Sadly whats really needed now more than ever is a thoroughly independent inquiry into the CSE in the town, this £250k is nothing but wasted money on a “local investigation”. The whole point, as was identified in the Jay Report was institutionalized failure of the existing multi-agency responses to CSE, from social services through to the Police, Councillors’ and other stake holders, licencing etc.

Any cursory examination of any of Labours’ social media exemplifies the criticisms made in Rotherham towards the the organisational culture being macho and sexist, bullying and when challenged antagonistic and aggressive. Jay’s inquiry held at 13.69″ The existence of such a culture as described above is likely to have impeded the Council from providing an effective, corporate response to such a highly sensitive social problem as child sexual exploitation.”

Clearly there are grounds to suggest this Local Authority may as was the case in Rotherham to be failing its best value duty.

Obviously there are far more issues identified in Jay demonstrable that have been blatantly ignored denoting a systemically flawed culture across all groups employed and elected that may predicate blame being the victims as there here in Telford. There is an obvious connection between the experiences in Rotherham and Telford similar to the rest of the country but the example in leadership of successive administrations in this borough most startlingly reflect a similitude with that of Rotherham’s disgraced Council leader Roger Stone.

Today people in Telford were expressing concerns to me about the Government’s missile testing and the reports in some newspapers of ‘cover up’ and ‘crisis.’

I sat in the Defence Minister’s statement to the House of Commons and having read around the issue this is my take on this issue:

Missile testing takes place regularly and these tests are not reported in public for reasons of national security. On this occasion, before the current Prime Minister was in post, a test was carried out that revealed a malfunction, the malfunction was subsequently corrected.

Reference to cover up and crisis was a misrepresentation of the situation and somewhat irresponsible in my view.